Cummins & Atmus Filtration Odd Lot Tender Opportunity (Final Result: $4,819 Profit)

Posted on March 19, 2024 // 48 Comments
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Final update 3/19/24: Cummins has released the final results of this exchange offer. See original post below for past details, although the opportunity has passed. The final proration factor was ~6.99%. However, those with “odd lots” of 99 shares or less were not subject to proration, which created an opportunity for smaller individual investors.

Here are my stats:

  • Bought 99 shares of CMI @265.86 (2/26) for $26,320.14
  • Tendered all 99 shares, exchanged for 1190.95 shares of ATMU.
  • Received 1190 ATMU shares and $25.24 cash for the partial shares of ATMU (3/19).
  • Sold 1190 shares of ATMU @26.15 and 26.14 for $21,076.68 and $10,037.66, respectively (3/19).

Net profit of $4,819.44. This took a total of 23 calendar days, so that works out to an internal rate of return of 1527.59% 🤑 according to my financial calculator. (At 5% APY, my return over 23 days would be about $80.) The absolute ROI is 4819/26320 = 18.3%. Not bad for less than a month! I hope that it worked out just as well for everyone who chose to participate.

Update 3/15/24: This exchange offer is now expired and the preliminary results have been released. The final exchange ratio was 12.0298, which means 99 CMI shares will be exchanged for 1190.95 ATMU shares. Out of the 5,574,050 shares that will be accepted for tender, 1,006,609 of those shares were from odd lot holders. That’s a relatively high amount, but still less than 20% of the total and odd lot holders won’t be pro-rated. On the other hand, everyone else who held more than 99 shares will be pro-rated down to approximately 6.7% of tendered shares.

ATMU has been seeing a lot of short interest, and may even be experiencing a bit of a “short squeeze” right now. This may be partially due to people hedging their bets on the stock. ATMU stock is up about 17% since this exchange was announced in mid-February. You might have made more money simply buying ATMU at the announcement rather than participating in the exchange! (You could have even made more money letting people borrow those shares to short.) As I said, this is as much an educational opportunity as a profit opportunity. I’ll have to keep an eye out for the ATMU shares showing up in my account. The two choices are to (1) sell all shares immediately, or (2) hold the ATMU shares for a couple months until the short interests and other market pressures subside. I’ll probably do the former, but here is another opinion on the latter.

I have no idea what the value of ATMU will be when the shares arrive (rough guess 0-2 weeks) and when I sell, so I won’t bother to post speculative numbers. I will provide a final update after selling.

Original post from 2/25/24:

Back in May 2023, Cummins (CMI) spun off a company called Atmus Filtration Technologies (ATMU) which makes products for commercial vehicles and equipment (think big rigs, agricultural machines, and yellow construction equipment). Cummins still owns about 80% of ATMU and are trying to complete the split-off via an exchange offer to CMI shareholders: tender $100 of CMI and receive $107.53 of ATMU in return.

Similar to the Johnson & Johnson odd lot tender from last year, this ~7.5% premium is meant to incentivize the deal and make sure it happens successfully, and as a result it may be “oversubscribed” with tenders having to be pro-rated. However, there is an “odd lot” provision in the deal, where if you only have 99 shares of less of CMI and tender them all, you won’t be subject to pro-ration. This is a corner of the market where small individual investors have an advantage that the bigger money can’t access.

Please know upfront that I’m not an expert on this stuff, and there are risks involved. The following two articles and the official informational site explain the various details and risks in much better detail.

From the official site above that tracks the share prices for the exact tender ratio (upper limit not in effect at time of writing):

If the Exchange Offer is oversubscribed and Cummins cannot accept all tenders of Cummins Common Stock at the exchange ratio, then all shares of Cummins Common Stock that are validly tendered will generally be accepted for exchange on a pro rata basis in proportion to the number of shares validly tendered, which is referred to as “proration.” Stockholders who beneficially own “odd-lots” (less than 100 shares) of Cummins Common Stock and who validly tender all of their shares will not be subject to proration. Direct or beneficial holders of 100 or more shares of Cummins Common Stock will be subject to proration.

For each $100 of Cummins Common Stock accepted in the Exchange Offer, you will receive approximately $107.53 of Atmus Common Stock, subject to an upper limit of 13.3965 shares of Atmus Common Stock per share of Cummins Common Stock. The Exchange Offer does not provide for a lower limit or minimum exchange ratio. See “The Exchange Offer — Terms of the Exchange Offer” in the Prospectus. IF THE UPPER LIMIT IS IN EFFECT, YOU MAY RECEIVE LESS THAN $107.53 OF ATMUS COMMON STOCK FOR EACH $100 OF CUMMINS COMMON STOCK THAT YOU TENDER, AND YOU COULD RECEIVE MUCH LESS.

To quickly summarize the potential deal:

  • Buy 99 shares* of CMI at your broker, for an approximate cost of $26,133 (as of market close 2/23, will change daily).
  • Tender ALL your shares through your broker. You can’t own 100+ shares and only tender 99. The deadline is supposed to be March 13, 2024, but some brokers may require your tender instructions earlier than that. (At Fidelity, it is 03/12/2024 7:00 PM ET.) Your broker may have an online form to fill out (look for “Corporation Actions”, or you’ll have to call them).
  • If all goes smoothly (not guaranteed!), then you’ll get ~$28,100 of ATMU approximately 7 business days after the deadline. You can then sell the shares for cash if you are not interested in actually holding the stock as an investment. At the 7.5% premium, the potential profit is ~$1,960. You may get less depending on the relative share prices of CMI and ATMU.
  • * You can buy less than 99 shares for less financial commitment (and less upside), but you have to tender them all.

This is the type of deal that I find both interesting and educational, on top of having a positive expected value. Warren Buffett today wouldn’t bother with this deal, but Warren Buffett age 14 might. This is a calculated gamble, rather than a fixed return. There is risk involved, including either the deal being canceled somehow (you end up with 99 shares of CMI at whatever market price) or the limit ratio being reached and you get less than a 7.5% premium of ATMU shares. This is also an area where a broker with good customer service is useful (I use Fidelity). You should perform your own due diligence.

Disclosure: I ended up deciding to participate and bought 99 shares of CMI after publication of this post (which was on a Sunday night). During mid-day trading on Monday, I bought 99 shares at $265.xx a share. This is not a recommendation to buy.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Investing //
Last updated: March 19, 2024
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

CFP Course Notes #2: Common Examples of Negligence by Financial Advisors

Posted on March 14, 2024 // Leave a Comment
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In keeping with my goal of finishing one course per month from the University of Georgia Self-Paced CFP education program, I wrapped up the first course “Fundamentals of Financial Planning” in February (barely). Here were the topics covered (source):

  • The Personal Financial Planning Process
  • Economic Concepts and Consumer Protection Laws
  • Personal Financial Statements
  • Managing Cash Flow and Debt
  • Using the HP-12C Calculator
  • Using the HP-10bII Calculator
  • Educational Savings Techniques
  • Educational Aid and Funding Calculation
  • Regulation of Financial Planners
  • CFP Board Regulatory Requirements

I previously covered the official 7-Step Financial Planning Process in Notes #1, which was enlightening. I ended up spending the most time overall on the HP-12C calculator section, as it took several reps to learn and memorize how to use all of the specialized buttons for the financial calculator.

I personally didn’t learn much new in the Educational Savings and Aid sections, given my previous research as a parent and owner of multiple 529 plans. It did provide a good generic overview for those that haven’t gone down that rabbit hole.

In terms of new practical information, I again found it helpful when they showed me the perspective of practicing advisors. The course wisely warns potential CFPs of the most common mistakes that have resulted in negligence lawsuits…

  • Failure to address risk of disability.
  • Failure to address risk of property loss and attached liability.
  • Failure to timely process a client’s deposit check, resulting in the loss of potential investment gains.
  • Recommending unsuitable investments.
  • Recommending only those products which result in high fees to the planner.
  • Failure to adequately educate the client regarding investment risks, costs, and benefits.
  • Charging fees that were not first disclosed and agreed upon with the client.
  • Failure to monitor investments on the schedule agreed upon in the engagement letter.

In turn, these items can be flipped to create a checklist for the individual client:

  • Do you have adequate disability insurance?
  • Do you have adequate homeowners/rental/landlord insurance, car/boat/vehicle insurance, umbrella liability insurance?
  • After sending in money, did you follow-up to confirm that your funds were deposited and invested as promised?
  • Do you feel that you fully understand the investments made on your behalf? Do you understand why they are better than other alternatives?
  • Did you receive a clear list of all the fees charged?
  • Are you receiving updates that your investments being monitored as promised?

Photo by Reba Spike on Unsplash

Filed Under: Insurance, Investing //
Last updated: March 14, 2024
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

UBS Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2024: The Haystack Keeps Changing

Posted on March 6, 2024 // Leave a Comment
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

The 25th edition of the UBS Global Investment Returns Yearbook is available for free download in a 56-page PDF Summary Edition version on the UBS website. (Credit Suisse took over the publication of this yearbook in 2009, and UBS was voluntold to acquire Credit Suisse in 2023.) Hat tip to Abnormal Returns. This publication provides a nice “big picture” overview of the long-term performance of global financial assets:

With the depth and breadth of the financial database that underpins it, the UBS Global Investment Returns Yearbook is widely recognized as the unrivalled authority on long-term investment returns. We present a historical record of the real returns from equities, bonds, cash and currencies for 35 markets, spanning developed and emerging markets and stretching back to 1900.

The late Jack Bogle was often credit with the saying: “Don’t look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack.”

If you look at the entire haystack of individual companies, over time there are a lot of losers and a few big winners. If you buy the entire investable US stock market, or the entire investable world stock market, you can be sure that you own all the eventual winners. Even if you bought the S&P 500 index in the 80s or 90s, you would eventually own Apple, Google, Nvidia, and so on. For example, who knows who the final winner in the AI battle will be?

I recommend scrolling through the Yearbook Summary just to look at the cool charts with data from 1900. Check out how different the US stock market looked in 1900 vs 2024:

I think about international diversification in a similar way. Inside a recent WSJ article (gift article) about Japan’s Nikkei stock index reaching its previous high from 1989, there was an updated chart of the historical breakdown of global stock market value between the US and the rest of the world. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the chart is based on one from the UBS Yearbook.

The US made up only about 15% of the world’s market cap in 1900, had a recent low of about 40% in 2010, but after the recent run is now over 60%. What will happen in the future? If you think US stocks will outperform the rest of the world over the next decade or longer, you are then betting that this 60% number will continue to increase. And it might! It’s been as high as about 70% in the past.

As for me, I simply don’t know. I’ll hopefully have 40+ more years being invested in the stock market, and the haystack will continue to change. I choose to maintain diversification and “own the haystack” when it comes to both individual US companies and global countries. I prefer to know I’ll own the needles and have less worry, even at the cost of potentially somewhat lower returns.

Filed Under: Investing, Retirement //
Last updated: March 6, 2024
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Best Interest Rates on Cash Roundup – March 2024

Posted on March 4, 2024 // 3 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Here’s my monthly roundup of the best interest rates on cash as of March 2024, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. There are lesser-known opportunities available to individual investors, often earning you a lot more money while keeping the same level of safety by moving to another FDIC-insured bank or NCUA-insured credit union. Check out my Ultimate Rate-Chaser Calculator to see how much extra interest you could earn from switching. Rates listed are available to everyone nationwide. Rates checked as of 3/4/2024.

TL;DR: Mostly minor movements. Still 5%+ savings accounts and short-term CDs, but no more 5-year CDs at 5% APY. Compare against Treasury bills and bonds at every maturity, taking into account state tax exemption.

Fintech accounts
Available only to individual investors, fintech companies often pay higher-than-market rates in order to achieve fast short-term growth (often using venture capital). “Fintech” is usually a software layer on top of a partner bank’s FDIC insurance.

  • 5.30% APY ($1 minimum). Raisin lets you switch between different FDIC-insured banks and NCUA-insured credit unions easily without opening a new account every time, and their liquid savings rates currently top out at 5.30% APY. See my Raisin review for details. Raisin does not charge depositors a fee for the service.
  • 5.36% APY (before fees). MaxMyInterest is another service that allows you to access and switch between different FDIC-insured banks. You can view their current banks and APYs here. As of 12/6/23, the highest rate is from Customers Bank at 5.36% APY. However, note that they charge a membership fee of 0.04% per quarter, or 0.16% per year (subject to $20 minimum per quarter, or $80 per year). That means if you have a $10,000 balance, then $80 a year = 0.80% per year. This service is meant for those with larger balances. You are allowed to cancel the service and keep the bank accounts, but then you may lose their specially-negotiated rates and cannot switch between banks anymore.

High-yield savings accounts
Since the huge megabanks STILL pay essentially no interest, everyone should have a separate, no-fee online savings account to piggy-back onto your existing checking account. The interest rates on savings accounts can drop at any time, so I list the top rates as well as competitive rates from banks with a history of competitive rates and solid user experience. Some banks will bait you with a temporary top rate and then lower the rates in the hopes that you are too lazy to leave.

  • The top rate at the moment is at Poppy Bank at 5.50% APY. BrioDirect at 5.35% APY. I have no personal experience with Poppy or Brio, but they are the top rates at the moment. (Milli dropped to 4.75%.) CIT Platinum Savings at 5.05% APY with $5,000+ balance.
  • SoFi Bank is now up to 4.60% APY + up to $325 new account bonus with direct deposit. You must maintain a direct deposit of any amount each month for the higher APY. SoFi has historically competitive rates and full banking features. See details at $25 + $300 SoFi Money new account and deposit bonus.
  • Here is a limited survey of high-yield savings accounts. They aren’t the highest current rate, but historically have kept it relatively competitive and I like to track their history.

Short-term guaranteed rates (1 year and under)
A common question is what to do with a big pile of cash that you’re waiting to deploy shortly (plan to buy a house soon, just sold your house, just sold your business, legal settlement, inheritance). My usual advice is to keep things simple and take your time. If not a savings account, then put it in a flexible short-term CD under the FDIC limits until you have a plan.

  • No Penalty CDs offer a fixed interest rate that can never go down, but you can still take out your money (once) without any fees if you want to use it elsewhere. Raisin has a 4-month No Penalty CD at 5.30% APY with $1 minimum deposit and 30-day minimum hold time. CIT Bank has a 11-month No Penalty CD at 4.90% APY with a $1,000 minimum deposit. Ally Bank has a 11-month No Penalty CD at 4.00% APY for all balance tiers. Marcus has a 13-month No Penalty CD at 4.70% APY with a $500 minimum deposit. Consider opening multiple CDs in smaller increments for more flexibility.
  • Bask Bank has a 1-year certificate at 5.40% APY ($1,000 min). There is a 90-day interest penalty if you withdraw your CD funds before maturity.
  • CIBC Agility Online has a 13-month CD at 5.36% APY. Reasonable 30-day penalty if you withdraw your CD funds before maturity.

Money market mutual funds + Ultra-short bond ETFs
Many brokerage firms that pay out very little interest on their default cash sweep funds (and keep the difference for themselves). Note: Money market mutual funds are highly-regulated, but ultimately not FDIC-insured, so I would still stick with highly reputable firms. I am including a few ultra-short bond ETFs as they may be your best cash alternative in a brokerage account, but they may experience losses.

  • Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund is the default sweep option for Vanguard brokerage accounts, which has an SEC yield of 5.27% (changes daily, but also works out to a compound yield of 5.40%, which is better for comparing against APY). Odds are this is much higher than your own broker’s default cash sweep interest rate.
  • The PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Active Bond ETF (MINT) has a 5.34% SEC yield and the iShares Short Maturity Bond ETF (NEAR) has a 5.09% SEC yield while holding a portfolio of investment-grade bonds with an average duration of ~6 months.

Treasury Bills and Ultra-short Treasury ETFs
Another option is to buy individual Treasury bills which come in a variety of maturities from 4-weeks to 52-weeks and are fully backed by the US government. You can also invest in ETFs that hold a rotating basket of short-term Treasury Bills for you, while charging a small management fee for doing so. T-bill interest is exempt from state and local income taxes, which can make a significant difference in your effective yield.

  • You can build your own T-Bill ladder at TreasuryDirect.gov or via a brokerage account with a bond desk like Vanguard and Fidelity. Here are the current Treasury Bill rates. As of 3/4/24, a new 4-week T-Bill had the equivalent of 5.38% annualized interest and a 52-week T-Bill had the equivalent of 4.99% annualized interest.
  • The iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) has a 5.19% SEC yield and effective duration of 0.10 years. SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL) has a 5.20% SEC yield and effective duration of 0.08 years.

US Savings Bonds
Series I Savings Bonds offer rates that are linked to inflation and backed by the US government. You must hold them for at least a year. If you redeem them within 5 years there is a penalty of the last 3 months of interest. The annual purchase limit for electronic I bonds is $10,000 per Social Security Number, available online at TreasuryDirect.gov. You can also buy an additional $5,000 in paper I bonds using your tax refund with IRS Form 8888.

  • “I Bonds” bought between November 2023 and April 2024 will earn a 5.27% rate for the first six months. The rate of the subsequent 6-month period will be based on inflation again. More on Savings Bonds here.
  • In mid-April 2023, the CPI will be announced and you will have a short period where you will have a very close estimate of the rate for the next 12 months. I will have another post up at that time.

Rewards checking accounts
These unique checking accounts pay above-average interest rates, but with unique risks. You have to jump through certain hoops which usually involve 10+ debit card purchases each cycle, a certain number of ACH/direct deposits, and/or a certain number of logins per month. If you make a mistake (or they judge that you did) you risk earning zero interest for that month. Some folks don’t mind the extra work and attention required, while others would rather not bother. Rates can also drop suddenly, leaving a “bait-and-switch” feeling.

  • OnPath Federal Credit Union pays 7.00% APY on up to $10,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and login to online or mobile banking once per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via $5 membership fee to join partner organization. You can also get a $100 Visa Reward card when you open a new account and make qualifying transactions.
  • Credit Union of New Jersey pays 6.00% APY on up to $25,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and make at least 1 direct deposit, online bill payment, or automatic payment (ACH) per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via $5 membership fee to join partner organization.
  • Andrews Federal Credit Union pays 6.00% APY on up to $25,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and make at least 1 direct deposit or ACH transaction per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via partner organization.
  • Pelican State Credit Union pays 6.05% APY on up to $20,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, log into your account at least once, and make at least 1 direct deposit, online bill payment, or automatic payment (ACH) per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via partner organization membership.
  • Orion Federal Credit Union pays 6.00% APY on up to $10,000 if you make electronic deposits of $500+ each month (ACH transfers count) and spend $500+ on your Orion debit or credit card each month. Anyone can join this credit union via $10 membership fee to partner organization membership.
  • All America/Redneck Bank pays 5.30% APY on up to $15,000 if you make 10 debit card purchases each monthly cycle with online statements.
  • Find a locally-restricted rewards checking account at DepositAccounts.

Certificates of deposit (greater than 1 year)
CDs offer higher rates, but come with an early withdrawal penalty. By finding a bank CD with a reasonable early withdrawal penalty, you can enjoy higher rates but maintain access in a true emergency. Alternatively, consider building a CD ladder of different maturity lengths (ex. 1/2/3/4/5-years) such that you have access to part of the ladder each year, but your blended interest rate is higher than a savings account. When one CD matures, use that money to buy another 5-year CD to keep the ladder going. Some CDs also offer “add-ons” where you can deposit more funds if rates drop.

  • First Internet Bank has a 5-year CD at 4.61% APY. 4-year at 4.55% APY. 3-year at 4.76% APY. 2-year at 4.86% APY. 1-year at 5.36% APY. $1,000 minimum. The early withdrawal penalty (EWP) for CD maturities of 2 years or more is 360 days of interest. For CD maturity of 1 year, the EWP is 180 days of interest.
  • BMO Alto has a 5-year CD at 4.60% APY. 4-year at 4.60% APY. 3-year at 4.60% APY. 2-year at 4.75% APY. 1-year at 5.15% APY. No minimum. The early withdrawal penalty (EWP) for CD maturities of 1 year or more is 180 days of interest. For CD maturities of 11 months or less, the EWP is 90 days of interest. Note that they reserve the right to prohibit early withdrawals entirely (!). Online-only subsidiary of BMO Bank.
  • You can buy certificates of deposit via the bond desks of Vanguard and Fidelity. You may need an account to see the rates. These “brokered CDs” offer FDIC insurance and easy laddering, but they don’t come with predictable early withdrawal penalties. Right now, I see a 5-year non-callable CD at 4.25% APY (callable: no, call protection: yes). Be warned that now both Vanguard and Fidelity will list higher rates from callable CDs, which importantly means they can call back your CD if rates drop later.

Longer-term Instruments
I’d use these with caution due to increased interest rate risk, but I still track them to see the rest of the current yield curve.

  • Willing to lock up your money for 10 years? You can buy long-term certificates of deposit via the bond desks of Vanguard and Fidelity. These “brokered CDs” offer FDIC insurance, but they don’t come with predictable early withdrawal penalties. You might find something that pays more than your other brokerage cash and Treasury options. Right now, I see a 10-year CDs at [n/a] (callable: no, call protection: yes) vs. 4.22% for a 10-year Treasury. Watch out for higher rates from callable CDs where they can call your CD back if interest rates drop.

All rates were checked as of 3/4/2024.

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers, Investing //
Last updated: March 6, 2024
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Berkshire Hathaway 2023 Annual Letter by Warren Buffett: Notes and Commentary

Posted on March 3, 2024 // Leave a Comment
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) released its 2023 Letter to Shareholders (also see full 2023 Annual Report), which Warren Buffett also uses as an educational instrument. As always, I recommend reading it yourself (only 17 pages total this year). I prefer to read the letter first (with no spoilers), then peruse the various newspaper and media commentary, and finally re-read the letter again. Here are my personal highlights and commentary.

Tribute to Charlie Munger. The letter starts with a tribute to the late Charlie Munger, to whom he credits as the “architect” of Berkshire Hathaway, while Buffett was the “general contractor” performing the day-to-day construction work.

…Charlie, in 1965, promptly advised me: “Warren, forget about ever buying another company like Berkshire. But now that you control Berkshire, add to it wonderful businesses purchased at fair prices and give up buying fair businesses at wonderful prices. In other words, abandon everything you learned from your hero, Ben Graham. It works but only when practiced at small scale.” With much back-sliding I subsequently followed his instructions.

This also serves as a good reminder of a central idea within Berkshire. First, you identify the wonderful businesses, the durable ones that you believe you could buy and then forget about for 10 years. Then, only after that is satisfied, you buy them only if available at a fair price. The hardest part is to maintain this discipline even in boom times.

Berkshire Hathaway shareholders are (still) different. In the same way, Berkshire Hathaway wishes to attract shareholders that believe that Berkshire is one of these wonderful businesses and wish to own their shares permanently, only selling a bit perhaps for spending in retirement or for estate reasons. Often, these Berkshire shareholders end up with far more than they need and make generous charitable contributions. Not a bad way to do things, in my humble opinion. You may have heard about the recent $1 billion donation to a New York medical school (NY Times gift article). Many news articles omitted that those were Berkshire Hathaway shares that were donated (WSJ gift article).

Annual reminder on reported earnings. Buffett reminds us again that, due to current accounting rules, Berkshire must count any changes in the value of their stock holdings in outside companies (Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, etc.) as “earnings”, which leads to funny things when they reports their profits each year. The rest of the company could be doing great, but if the share values fall, then they have to report a loss. The rest of the company could be struggling, but if the share values rise, then they have to report a profit.

Own American businesses! Buy them, keep them, be patient.

I can’t remember a period since March 11, 1942 – the date of my first stock purchase – that I have not had a majority of my net worth in equities, U.S.-based equities. And so far, so good. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 100 on that fateful day in 1942 when I “pulled the trigger.” I was down about $5 by the time school was out. Soon, things turned around and now that index hovers around 38,000. America has been a terrific country for investors. All they have needed to do is sit quietly, listening to no one.

A carefully-worded warning about dealing with people of questionable moral fiber. You may have read about the drama between Berkshire Hathaway while trying to finalize the purchase of the Pilot Travel Centers truck stop business. As Reuters put it, “Buffett did not mention Pilot in his annual letter to Berkshire shareholders […] but offered an anecdote about the risk of disappointment in acquisitions.” Here’s the anecdote 💀:

We also hope these favored businesses are run by able and trustworthy managers, though that is a more difficult judgment to make, however, and Berkshire has had its share of disappointments.

In 1863, Hugh McCulloch, the first Comptroller of the United States, sent a letter to all national banks. His instructions included this warning: “Never deal with a rascal under the expectation that you can prevent him from cheating you.” Many bankers who thought they could “manage” the rascal problem have learned the wisdom of Mr. McCulloch’s advice – and I have as well. People are not that easy to read. Sincerity and empathy can easily be faked. That is as true now as it was in 1863.

Don’t expect Berkshire to outperform the S&P 500 by a lot in the future, but do expect it to be a fortress in times of crisis. One way they could beat the S&P 500 by a lot is if a market crash occurs and they buy a lot of businesses at low prices.

With that focus, and with our present mix of businesses, Berkshire should do a bit better than the average American corporation and, more important, should also operate with materially less risk of permanent loss of capital. Anything beyond “slightly better,” though, is wishful thinking. This modest aspiration wasn’t the case when Bertie went all-in on Berkshire – but it is now.

Extreme fiscal conservatism is a corporate pledge we make to those who have joined us in ownership of Berkshire. In most years – indeed in most decades – our caution will likely prove to be unneeded behavior – akin to an insurance policy on a fortress-like building thought to be fireproof. But Berkshire does not want to inflict permanent financial damage – quotational shrinkage for extended periods can’t be avoided – on Bertie or any of the individuals who have trusted us with their savings.

Berkshire is built to last.

I aspire to this “fortress” level of financial security for my personal finances. That’s why I’m also okay with holding a decent chunk of cash (Treasury bonds) even though most of the time it’s a performance drag. At the same time, this is also why I’d rather just own a Total US stock market index fund rather than BRK. I think BRK will be fine once Buffett is gone, but I’m not 100% certain.

As for the rest of their fully-owned and partially-owned businesses, nothing really stuck out to me. Buffett is still adding to his life’s work, his “masterpiece”. I just like to watch, not second-guess. He’s still buying OXY and some mystery financial company. Overall, operating earnings are going up, with some parts doing quite well (notably insurance underwriting and income) and some struggling (notably Berkshire Hathaway Energy and BNSF Railroad).

As for BRK shares themselves, these days there is an easy “buy” signal beamed directly by Buffett himself. If BRK is repurchasing a lot of shares, then it’s probably at a fair price to buy (with a tiny portion of my self-directed investments). If they stop repurchasing shares, then so will I.

Past shareholder letter notes.

The 2024 annual shareholder meeting will be in Omaha on Saturday, May 4th. CNBC will most likely livestream it again.

Filed Under: Inspirational, Investing //
Last updated: March 3, 2024
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

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Save App Review: 9.07% APY Advertised vs. 0.00% APY Actual Return on Market Savings From 12/2022 to 12/2023

Posted on February 29, 2024 // 92 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Update February 2024: Save now provides a link to their actual returns for their 1-year Market Savings across all portfolios. But be careful, as much of what is shown at first glance is for products that haven’t actually completed their entire terms. You need to scroll all the way left to find numbers for products that have reached maturity and actually paid out any returns. For example, starting December 2022 and ending December 2023, or January 2023 through January 2024. Screenshot taken 2/29/24.

Update January 2024: I have updated this review with my final return numbers, along with additional details from my bank and brokerage statements. I really wish it were different, but unfortunately my experience was not unique. I have gotten a lot of messages from people who are unhappy that they received a 0% actual return on their Market Savings investments. I hope it can help prospective users make a more educated decision.

Detailed, full review:

The Save app advertises a Market Savings Account that “combines the security of FDIC-insured bank deposits with the upside potential of market returns”. I took a glance at the advertised yields (see below) and quickly filed it under “probably too good to be true”, but still came back and took a shot due to the “free” 6X leverage offered where I could invest $1,000 and get the returns of $6,000 worth of investments.

Here is a screenshot of their advertised rates, taken 2/29/24:

A short theoretical story. Let’s say you have $1,000 and put it into a 1-year CD at an FDIC-insured bank that pays 5% APY. At the end of the year, you’d have $1,050 guaranteed. Now, imagine you went to Vegas and instead bet that $50 interest on red at the roulette table. Worst-case, you’d lose the $50 and still have $1,000. Best-case, you’d double the $50 and end up with $1,100. A 10% annual return! Now, you might charge a fee to others for this “service”. Nothing if they lose, but a little cut if they win. So $1,000 worst-case, and $1,096 if they win ($4 fee for the service).

This gives you a basic idea of what I imagined was going on here, except replace Vegas with some fancy derivatives to give you market exposure to a portfolio of stocks and bonds.

The longer Save version. Here it is, straight from Save:

Every Save® account is connected with a FDIC-insured bank account. Your deposits are never at risk. We only invest the interest on your deposits, so no matter what happens with the ups and downs of the markets, your initial deposit is never at risk for investment loss.

This app is a combination of an FDIC-insured bank account, an SIPC-insured brokerage account, and an SEC-registered investment advisor. Your money is placed into an FDIC-insured account at Webster Bank that doesn’t earn any interest. Instead of paying you interest, they will buy a portfolio of securities that offer exposure to market products like stocks and bonds. These securities are held in a brokerage account with Apex Clearing, the same firm used by brokers like Robinhood, WeBull, etc. As your financial advisor, they will charge you a fee of 0.35% annually for this service. Ex. 0.35% of $1,000 is $3.50 a year. 0.35% of $10,000 is $35 a year.

This is all taken from Save’s official documents: press release, terms and conditions, SEC Form ADV, deposit agreement, and Form CRS.

Upon opening Market Savings and initiating a deposit to the Deposit Account, Save will, on behalf of you:

– deposit your funds in full into the Deposit Account provided by Webster, member FDIC and,
– purchase a strategy–linked security selected based on your risk tolerances within a Client Account

The Market Savings Product is comprised of a Deposit Account with Webster Bank, N.A. and a Client Account with Apex Clearing Corporation.

SAVE Advisers is an investment adviser registered with the SEC. SAVE Advisers provides its clients with combined banking products and wealth management services through a web-based algorithmically driven wrap-fee investment advisory program (the “SAVE Market Savings Wrap Program”).

The SAVE Market Savings Wrap Program is designed for investors with a cash savings investment profile. The investment objective of the SAVE Market Savings Wrap Program is to enhance our clients’ cash savings investment profile by providing attractive returns on capital using Save’s core investment philosophy while preserving their initial investment.

On the Market Savings Wrap Program, Clients will pay a wrap fee at a rate of 35 basis points (0.35%) per annum (one basis point is 1/100 of 1%) on either 1.) the total notional amount of each strategy–linked security or 2.) the total notional value of the Client Deposit Account (whichever is greater).

Save products are intended for conservative investors who are mostly concerned about the protection of their principal investments.

This reminds me of the No Risk Portfolio with 100% Money Back Guarantee. Your market-linked investment may go up 10%, 100%, or whatever, but the worst thing that can happen is it goes to zero (and you still get back your initial investment). According to this WSJ article (paywall), the CEO says the chance of a zero return in any given year is about 15%. This suggests that they are using some sort of leverage. (They also say the returns will count as long-term capital gains, unlike ordinary bank interest.)

The investments in Save portfolios are held for over a year so they are taxed as long-term capital gains.

This reminds me of the structured investments and “equity-linked returns with no downside” offered by many insurance companies. The insurance companies have much more onerous early withdrawal penalties where you can lose more than your initial principal, so this seems like a much lower cost option (even if still not what I want for my primary portfolio).

Where do they get those high advertised returns? Those are back-tested numbers:

Average annual returns are based on hypothetical back-tested performance by Save of the Save Moderate Portfolio from 2006 to present.

What happens if I try to withdraw my investment before the end of my term? There is a early withdrawal fee (a slightly complicated formula), but you’ll always at least get back your initial principal.

I understand that if I terminate my account prior to the completion of an investment term I may forgo all gains and receive back only my initial deposit.

Update: My final results from December 2022 to December 2023. I deposited $1,000 in December 2022, and ended up with… $1,000 in December 2023. I got back my initial $1,000 and that was it. All of the other investments apparently matured at a value of zero. This is despite having been told that I had positive returns in the middle of my term.

After my initial sign-up and $1,000 investment of my own money in December 2022, I did later participate in Save’s referral program and that did later result in additional earnings (my earnings were the same as the referred earnings). If you count this money, then I received a positive return. However, I don’t feel that this is representative of what you (the reader) could necessarily achieve on your own, so I chose to focus only on what I would have gotten without the ability to refer other users. I simply count the $1,000 of my own money and the $5,000 equivalent balance invested due to using someone else’s referral. On that money, my return was the same as everyone else who invested in my portfolio from December 2022 to December 2023: zero.

Save’s referral program is structured in that I earn the same bonus as the reader that signed up. Thus, you can see the returns of every single reader that used me as their referral (thanks again if you did!). I have gone ahead and attached the screenshot of every single referral that I have made with a matured investment, as of the end of March 2024. These are real-world results from real readers. The return percentages are usually based on a $5,000 equivalent investment (i.e. 1% return on $5,000 is $50.)

People with different start times and end times have different returns. Some have had zero returns. Some have had positive returns. The more recent returns are higher, and I hope that they continue to rise. However, I don’t count my chickens until they have hatched (fully matured and paid back any principal and interest).

That was a lot, but now you have all my returns and all the matured returns from all referred readers, down to the penny.

Save did put my initial $1,000 in an FDIC-insured bank account and just kept it there – nice and safe – doing absolutely nothing. No interest was earned. Each month, I got a bank statement and a brokerage statement. Here is a screenshot of my final bank statement showing $1,000 being sent back to me at the end of December 2023, after 12 months.

Below is a screenshot from my Save Brokerage statement, which was indeed held at Apex Clearing (a popular clearing firm for many fintechs, used by Robinhood, etc). Inside, they bought some sort of non-transparent, thinly-traded securities that were classified as corporate bonds. Perhaps someone with more advanced market knowledge can tell me more about these things. Example CUSIPs were 05600HTU9 and 05600H2F1.

Here is a tiny of bit info from FINRA:

The value of this security varied wildly through the year, from zero to $1 and all the way back to apparently zero?

How much of this security did they buy? In my case, it was about $15 worth per $1,000 invested. In comparison, earning 4% APY from a 1-year $1,000 traditional bank CD would equal $40.

I did sign up using a referral link and deposited $1,000 to qualify for the bonus $5,000 (at the time, lower now) for a total equivalent balance of $6,000. I thought this would be a good value bet, effectively leveraging any returns. Unfortunately, zero times anything is still… zero. I just got back my $1,000. Again, this excludes any referral bonus income.

Now, I knew that a zero return was possible. A screenshot of the portfolio strategy that I picked initially is shown below. However, nearly every major asset class had solid positive returns for 2023. Yet, according to Save’s own historical returns page (see top of post), the highest return for any of their multiple portfolios that were held from both (December 2022 to December 2023) or (January 2023 to January 2024) was 1.20%, with the median return being zero. I’m afraid that I simply don’t understand what is inside the securities that they chose to buy, so I will not be investing anything further.

Honestly, I had high hopes for this product. It had potential and it didn’t even have to be that complicated. Again, look at this simple DIY principal-guaranteed investment linked to market returns.

Bottom line. The Save app advertises to folks “higher returns on their savings without the risks of the stock market.” They do appear to keep your principal safe in an FDIC-insured account, so indeed you can’t technically lose money. But it is unclear to me how they invest the rest. Despite their advertised 1-year return numbers, my personal experience was zero return (0.00%) on my 1-year term Market Savings investment that ran from December 2022 to December 2023. This matches their published actual returns for all investors during this time frame. This numbers excludes subsequent income from referral bonuses, which if you did include, would have resulted in a positive return. Other maturities may have experienced different returns, as shown in the screenshots above. I did receive my initial principal back as promised.

Note: Save Advisers pays a Referral Bonus up to $5000/$10,000 [product specific] as more specifically described in the current Referral Program as outlined by the Advisor here: https://joinsave.com/referrals, for each successful client referral. This amount is subject to change at any time.

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers, Investing //
Last updated: April 2, 2024
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Study: 100% Stocks The Best Portfolio For Both Accumulation and Retirement Income?

Posted on February 23, 2024 // 5 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

The academic paper Beyond the Status Quo: A Critical Assessment of Lifecycle Investment Advice by Anarkulova, Cederburg and O’Doherty had a conclusion that caught my eye. From the abstract:

We challenge two central tenets of lifecycle investing: (i) investors should diversify across stocks and bonds and (ii) the young should hold more stocks than the old. An even mix of 50% domestic stocks and 50% international stocks held throughout one’s lifetime vastly outperforms age-based, stock-bond strategies in building wealth, supporting retirement consumption, preserving capital, and generating bequests.

Now, the actual paper was not written for non-academics and there was very slim pickins’ in the “easy-to-understand graphic that summarizes our results” department, but I’ll try my best. They studied 8 different portfolios, summarized below. (They also picked the names.)

  • TDF. Follows the asset allocation of the most popular target-date funds, which use a glide path that starts at 90% equities but reduces equity percentage over time.
  • Balanced. 60% US stocks, 40% bonds.
  • Balanced/I. 30% US stocks, 30% International stocks, 40% bonds.
  • Age. (120-Age)% US stocks, (Age-20)% bonds.
  • Age/I. (60-Age/2)% US stocks, (60-Age/2)% International stocks, (Age-20)% bonds.
  • Bills. Invests only in Treasury bills.
  • Stocks. 100% US stocks.
  • Stocks/I. 50% US stocks, 50% International stocks.

In the chart below, the authors show the equivalent savings rate that would have been required to reach the same level of “expected utility of retirement consumption” (retirement income provided + leftover money at death) throughout the entire lifecycle of a 10% savings rate during the working years and then spending it down at a 4% withdrawal rate in retirement.

Let’s look at the highlighted pink box. This is the line for the best performing portfolio of 50% US stocks, 50% International stocks (“Stocks/I”). In order to have gotten the same amount of retirement income + bequest as a 10% savings rate with Stocks/I, you would have had to save 14.1% with a TDF, 16.9% with the Balanced portfolio, and so on. Note that staying in cash “bills”, you would need to ratchet up to 47% savings rate!

In another chart, we see that 50% US stocks, 50% International stocks (“Stocks/I”) also creates the highest income replacement rate in retirement, based on a 10% savings rate. This is true on average (50% percentile) and even in the worst-case scenarios (5th percentile), as long as you stayed with the plan. The drawdowns would have been temporarily more severe over certain periods of time, however.

My takeaways are:

  • You might consider a 100% stock portfolio with international exposure, if you really have the stomach for it. I’d probably recommend waiting until after you have survived a 50% crash first. Optimally, your portfolio would grow so much that by retirement, you may not even need a 4% withdrawal rate.
  • All of the other portfolios that contains some bonds (TDF, Balanced, Balanced/I, Age, Age/I) had very similar results over the entire lifecycle of accumulation and spending down. They still did pretty well.
  • Everyone should definitely own a good chunk of stocks, as trying to accumulate enough money with just safe “cash” in the form of Treasury bills or bank accounts is going to require in the neighborhood of five times the savings rate.
Filed Under: Investing, Retirement //
Last updated: February 23, 2024
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Taking a Self-Paced CFP Education Course For Fun and… Personal Knowledge

Posted on February 12, 2024 // 16 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

While pondering potential goals for the New Year, I ended up poking around Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Certification Education Programs. I have been toying with the idea of taking one of these courses off and on for years, which helps you fulfill the first two requirements of obtaining the CFP certification:

  • Education. Completion of CFP Board-approved coursework, and a bachelor’s degree in any discipline from an accredited college or university.
  • Exam. Pass the CFP® Exam, which is 6 hours long and consists of 170 multiple-choice questions covering a variety of topics.
  • Experience. Complete 6,000 hours of professional experience related to the financial planning process, or 4,000 hours of apprenticeship experience that meets additional requirements.
  • Ethics. Pass the Candidate Fitness and Standards Background Check.

I have no plans to pursue a career as a financial planner, as even helping my parents with their portfolio is stressful enough on it own. Accordingly, I don’t plan on completing the Experience requirement and thus won’t be able to obtain the actual CFP certification. So why bother spending thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time?

  • I do plan on managing my own portfolio and financial situation (and portfolio of my parents) for the next few decades and beyond.
  • I know that I enjoy financial topics in general and am curious to fill any knowledge gaps that I have.
  • I’m curious about what the CFP board thinks is important and “correct”.
  • Hopefully I will find some useful information to share with you readers.
  • Even at a robo-advisor-like annual management fee of 0.30%, a $1 million portfolio would still cost $3,000 in fees each year. For someone who has accumulated a significant portfolio, it doesn’t seem completely reckless to spend $3,000 learning this stuff instead.

I read some reviews and comparisons, and somehow ended up on the website for the University of Georgia Self-Paced Online CFP® Program. This wasn’t the most well-known program, or the oldest program, but it seemed like a decent CFP Board-registered program and covered all the required topics at a relatively affordable cost of $3,250 (+$750 for optional textbooks). There are six courses and a capstone course where you develop an actual financial plan:

  • Fundamentals of Financial Planning
  • Insurance Planning
  • Investment Planning
  • Income Tax Planning
  • Retirement Planning
  • Estate Planning
  • Developing the Financial Plan

I filled out the form for a “free Demo”, and shortly thereafter received an e-mail offer for $700 off the “sticker” price. This offer has since expired, but I share this story for those seriously interested as you might also decide to express interest and see if you get an offer. The course itself appears to be run by a third-party called Greene Consulting, which runs the CFP courses for five different universities including UGA. (Yes, I checked them all, and they all list the same prices.)

Get instant access! Test drive the platform and learn why thousands of people have selected this Online CFP® Certification Education Program over the competition.

Complete the form below and get instant access to our online platform. View sample courses and interactive content.

Note: I have no affiliation with this program besides being a paying customer. Oh yes, I forgot, I impulsively bought the program after receiving the discount offer. I had already “anchored” myself to paying the $3,250 and felt it was a good deal… I fell for the old infomercial trick! Still, if you compare prices for CFP courses (full core content, excluding textbooks), this was definitely the cheapest net price that I’ve found.

This self-paced program allows you up to 21 months to complete all of the courses. My plan is to complete one course per month starting this month (February), and so right now I’m only about halfway through the first course “Fundamentals of Financial Planning”. I did go ahead and purchase physical textbooks (I’m old-fashioned… and old), but I haven’t had to open them yet. They use the financial textbooks from Money Education, and I paid $750 through UGA for the complete set.

Note that many financial professionals decide to take an additional “exam cram course” with lots of practice questions that is solely focused on passing the CFP Exam. This adds roughly another $1,000 on top of the ~$925 to actually take the CFP Exam itself! I don’t know if all that extra cost will be worth being able to say “I passed the CFP Exam!” when I don’t need the CFP certification for career advancement purposes.

Filed Under: Estate Planning, Insurance, Investing, Retirement //
Last updated: February 13, 2024
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

TurboTax Online Walkthrough: How To Enter US Treasury Interest from Money Market and Bond Funds/ETFs For State Tax Exemption

Posted on February 8, 2024 // 8 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

If you earned interest from a money market fund or bond mutual fund/ETF last year, a significant portion of this interest may have come from US Treasury bills and bonds, which are generally exempt from state and local income taxes. (California, Connecticut, and New York have special rules.) However, in order to claim this exemption, you’ll probably have to manually enter it on your tax return (or be sure to notify your accountant) after digging up a few extra details. The details are almost never included on your 1099-DIV form.

Here’s how to do it in at TurboTax.com, the online version of TurboTax tax software. (I received some requests for a more detailed walkthrough after my H&R Block version.) I found the following information from the TurboTax FAQ:

What about dividends from U.S. government bonds?

The federal government taxes income you receive from its own bonds. Although your state doesn’t tax income generated by U.S. government bonds, each state defines government bonds differently.

To find out if these dividends are taxable in your state, review your 1099-B along with the supplemental pages from your consolidated tax statement. If you can’t find the info, you might be able to get it from your brokerage or mutual fund company website.

Once you have found the info in your documents, just follow the screens here and we’ll help you enter an adjustment for the nontaxable amount in your state. When you get to your state taxes, we’ll subtract the adjustment from the income reported to your state.

I did not find “just follow the screens” especially helpful, so I started up a dummy return at TurboTax.com for 2023 and manually created a 1099-DIV form from “Apex Clearning” (sic) with $100,000 of total dividends. This is in the Federal return section. You may choose to import this form and then review it afterward.

This part should just be exactly the same as the 1099-DIV form that was sent to you. Don’t add any extra entries and just continue.

On the next screen, you should click on the box for “A portion of these dividends is U.S. Government interest.”

Here, you will enter the amount of interest (out of the amount in line 1a of your 1099-DIV) that represents interest from US government obligations. For example, if you received $100,000 in total dividends from the Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund (VUSXX) in 2023, you will find it does meet the threshold requirements for California, Connecticut, and New York and it had a US government obligation percentage of 80.06% in 2023. In this example, $80,060 of the $100,000 in dividends would be excludable. I would enter $80,060 in the form below.

This information should carry through to your state tax return, reducing your state taxable income.

Here are some links to find the percentage of ordinary dividends that come from obligations of the U.S. government. You should be able to find this data for any mutual fund or ETF by searching for something like “[fund company] us government obligations 2023”. If you do not see the fund listed within the fund company documentation, it may be because it is 0%.

[Image credit – Tax Foundation]

Filed Under: Investing, Taxes //
Last updated: February 21, 2024
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Best Interest Rates on Cash – February 2024

Posted on February 7, 2024 // 3 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Here’s my monthly roundup of the best interest rates on cash as of February 2024, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. There are often lesser-known opportunities available to individual investors, where you could earn a lot more money while keeping the same level of safety by moving to another FDIC-insured bank or NCUA-insured credit union. Check out my Ultimate Rate-Chaser Calculator to see how much extra interest you could earn from switching. Rates listed are available to everyone nationwide. Rates checked as of 2/5/2024.

TL;DR: Mostly minor movements. Still 5%+ savings accounts and short-term CDs, but no more 5-year CDs at 5% APY. Compare against Treasury bills and bonds at every maturity, taking into account state tax exemption.

Fintech accounts
Available only to individual investors, fintech companies often pay higher-than-market rates in order to achieve fast short-term growth (often using venture capital). “Fintech” is usually a software layer on top of a partner bank’s FDIC insurance.

  • 5.32% APY ($1 minimum). Raisin lets you switch between different FDIC-insured banks and NCUA-insured credit unions easily without opening a new account every time, and their liquid savings rates currently top out at 5.32% APY. See my Raisin review for details. Raisin does not charge depositors a fee for the service.
  • 5.36% APY (before fees). MaxMyInterest is another service that allows you to access and switch between different FDIC-insured banks. You can view their current banks and APYs here. As of 12/6/23, the highest rate is from Customers Bank at 5.36% APY. However, note that they charge a membership fee of 0.04% per quarter, or 0.16% per year (subject to $20 minimum per quarter, or $80 per year). That means if you have a $10,000 balance, then $80 a year = 0.80% per year. This service is meant for those with larger balances. You are allowed to cancel the service and keep the bank accounts, but then you may lose their specially-negotiated rates and cannot switch between banks anymore.

High-yield savings accounts
Since the huge megabanks STILL pay essentially no interest, everyone should have a separate, no-fee online savings account to piggy-back onto your existing checking account. The interest rates on savings accounts can drop at any time, so I list the top rates as well as competitive rates from banks with a history of competitive rates and solid user experience. Some banks will bait you with a temporary top rate and then lower the rates in the hopes that you are too lazy to leave.

  • The top rate at the moment is at Milli (app only) at 5.50% APY. BrioDirect at 5.35% APY. CIT Platinum Savings at 5.05% APY with $5,000+ balance.
  • SoFi Bank is now up to 4.60% APY + up to $325 new account bonus with direct deposit. You must maintain a direct deposit of any amount each month for the higher APY. SoFi has historically competitive rates and full banking features. See details at $25 + $300 SoFi Money new account and deposit bonus.
  • Here is a limited survey of high-yield savings accounts. They aren’t the highest current rate, but historically have kept it relatively competitive and I like to track their history.

Short-term guaranteed rates (1 year and under)
A common question is what to do with a big pile of cash that you’re waiting to deploy shortly (plan to buy a house soon, just sold your house, just sold your business, legal settlement, inheritance). My usual advice is to keep things simple and take your time. If not a savings account, then put it in a flexible short-term CD under the FDIC limits until you have a plan.

  • No Penalty CDs offer a fixed interest rate that can never go down, but you can still take out your money (once) without any fees if you want to use it elsewhere. Raisin has a 5-month No Penalty CD at 5.36% APY with $1 minimum deposit and 30-day minimum hold time. CIT Bank has a 11-month No Penalty CD at 4.90% APY with a $1,000 minimum deposit. Ally Bank has a 11-month No Penalty CD at 4.25% APY for all balance tiers. Marcus has a 13-month No Penalty CD at 4.70% APY with a $500 minimum deposit. Consider opening multiple CDs in smaller increments for more flexibility.
  • Lafayette Federal Credit Union has a 1-year certificate at 5.56% APY ($500 min). They also have jumbo certificates with $100,000 minimums at even higher rates, but a harsh 180-day penalty if you withdraw your CD funds before maturity. Anyone can join this credit union via partner organization ($10 one-time fee).
  • CIBC Agility Online has a 12-month CD at 5.51% APY. Reasonable 30-day penalty if you withdraw your CD funds before maturity.

Money market mutual funds + Ultra-short bond ETFs
Many brokerage firms that pay out very little interest on their default cash sweep funds (and keep the difference for themselves). Note: Money market mutual funds are highly-regulated, but ultimately not FDIC-insured, so I would still stick with highly reputable firms. I am including a few ultra-short bond ETFs as they may be your best cash alternative in a brokerage account, but they may experience losses.

  • Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund is the default sweep option for Vanguard brokerage accounts, which has an SEC yield of 5.28% (changes daily, but also works out to a compound yield of 5.41%, which is better for comparing against APY). Odds are this is much higher than your own broker’s default cash sweep interest rate.
  • The PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Active Bond ETF (MINT) has a 5.39% SEC yield and the iShares Short Maturity Bond ETF (NEAR) has a 5.15% SEC yield while holding a portfolio of investment-grade bonds with an average duration of ~6 months.

Treasury Bills and Ultra-short Treasury ETFs
Another option is to buy individual Treasury bills which come in a variety of maturities from 4-weeks to 52-weeks and are fully backed by the US government. You can also invest in ETFs that hold a rotating basket of short-term Treasury Bills for you, while charging a small management fee for doing so. T-bill interest is exempt from state and local income taxes, which can make a significant difference in your effective yield.

  • You can build your own T-Bill ladder at TreasuryDirect.gov or via a brokerage account with a bond desk like Vanguard and Fidelity. Here are the current Treasury Bill rates. As of 2/5/24, a new 4-week T-Bill had the equivalent of 5.39% annualized interest and a 52-week T-Bill had the equivalent of 4.64% annualized interest.
  • The iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) has a 5.17% SEC yield and effective duration of 0.10 years. SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL) has a 5.24% SEC yield and effective duration of 0.08 years.

US Savings Bonds
Series I Savings Bonds offer rates that are linked to inflation and backed by the US government. You must hold them for at least a year. If you redeem them within 5 years there is a penalty of the last 3 months of interest. The annual purchase limit for electronic I bonds is $10,000 per Social Security Number, available online at TreasuryDirect.gov. You can also buy an additional $5,000 in paper I bonds using your tax refund with IRS Form 8888.

  • “I Bonds” bought between November 2023 and April 2024 will earn a 5.27% rate for the first six months. The rate of the subsequent 6-month period will be based on inflation again. More on Savings Bonds here.
  • In mid-April 2023, the CPI will be announced and you will have a short period where you will have a very close estimate of the rate for the next 12 months. I will have another post up at that time.

Rewards checking accounts
These unique checking accounts pay above-average interest rates, but with unique risks. You have to jump through certain hoops which usually involve 10+ debit card purchases each cycle, a certain number of ACH/direct deposits, and/or a certain number of logins per month. If you make a mistake (or they judge that you did) you risk earning zero interest for that month. Some folks don’t mind the extra work and attention required, while others would rather not bother. Rates can also drop suddenly, leaving a “bait-and-switch” feeling.

  • OnPath Federal Credit Union pays 7.00% APY on up to $10,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and login to online or mobile banking once per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via $5 membership fee to join partner organization. You can also get a $100 Visa Reward card when you open a new account and make qualifying transactions.
  • Credit Union of New Jersey pays 6.00% APY on up to $25,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and make at least 1 direct deposit, online bill payment, or automatic payment (ACH) per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via $5 membership fee to join partner organization.
  • Pelican State Credit Union pays 6.05% APY on up to $20,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, log into your account at least once, and make at least 1 direct deposit, online bill payment, or automatic payment (ACH) per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via partner organization membership.
  • Orion Federal Credit Union pays 6.00% APY on up to $10,000 if you make electronic deposits of $500+ each month (ACH transfers count) and spend $500+ on your Orion debit or credit card each month. Anyone can join this credit union via $10 membership fee to partner organization membership.
  • All America/Redneck Bank pays 5.30% APY on up to $15,000 if you make 10 debit card purchases each monthly cycle with online statements.
  • Find a locally-restricted rewards checking account at DepositAccounts.

Certificates of deposit (greater than 1 year)
CDs offer higher rates, but come with an early withdrawal penalty. By finding a bank CD with a reasonable early withdrawal penalty, you can enjoy higher rates but maintain access in a true emergency. Alternatively, consider building a CD ladder of different maturity lengths (ex. 1/2/3/4/5-years) such that you have access to part of the ladder each year, but your blended interest rate is higher than a savings account. When one CD matures, use that money to buy another 5-year CD to keep the ladder going. Some CDs also offer “add-ons” where you can deposit more funds if rates drop.

  • Library Of Congress Federal Credit Union has a 60-month CD at 4.84% APY with $500 minimum. Shorter terms are pretty competitive as well: 4-year at 4.89% APY. 3-year at 5.25% APY. 2-year at 5.20% APY. 1-year at 5.35% APY. The early withdrawal penalty for the 5-year is 180 days of interest. Anyone can join this credit union via partner organization.
  • BMO Alto has a 5-year CD at 4.60% APY. 4-year at 4.60% APY. 3-year at 4.60% APY. 2-year at 4.75% APY. 1-year at 5.30% APY. No minimum. The early withdrawal penalty (EWP) for CD maturities of 1 year or more is 180 days of interest. For CD maturities of 11 months or less, the EWP is 90 days of interest. Note that they reserve the right to prohibit early withdrawals entirely. Online-only subsidiary of BMO Bank.
  • You can buy certificates of deposit via the bond desks of Vanguard and Fidelity. You may need an account to see the rates. These “brokered CDs” offer FDIC insurance and easy laddering, but they don’t come with predictable early withdrawal penalties. Right now, I see a 5-year non-callable CD at 4.10% APY (callable: no, call protection: yes). Be warned that now both Vanguard and Fidelity will list higher rates from callable CDs, which importantly means they can call back your CD if rates drop later.

Longer-term Instruments
I’d use these with caution due to increased interest rate risk, but I still track them to see the rest of the current yield curve.

  • Willing to lock up your money for 10 years? You can buy long-term certificates of deposit via the bond desks of Vanguard and Fidelity. These “brokered CDs” offer FDIC insurance, but they don’t come with predictable early withdrawal penalties. You might find something that pays more than your other brokerage cash and Treasury options. Right now, I see a 10-year CDs at [n/a] (callable: no, call protection: yes) vs. 4.16% for a 10-year Treasury. Watch out for higher rates from callable CDs where they can call your CD back if interest rates drop.

All rates were checked as of 2/5/2023.

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers, Investing //
Last updated: February 7, 2024
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H&R Block Online Walkthrough: How To Enter US Treasury Interest from Money Market and Bond Funds/ETFs For State Tax Exemption

Posted on February 5, 2024 // 6 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

If you earned interest from a money market fund or bond mutual fund/ETF last year, a significant portion of this interest may have come from US Treasury bills and bonds, which are generally exempt from state and local income taxes. (California, Connecticut, and New York have special rules.) However, in order to claim this exemption, you’ll probably have to manually enter it on your tax return after digging up a few extra details.

Here’s how to do it in at HRBlock.com, the online version of H&R Block tax software. I found the two following quotes from the H&R Block FAQ:

How do I enter interest from U.S. Treasury obligations?
This information doesn’t appear on the form, but we’ll need it to calculate the tax-exempt interest on your state return. This information won’t affect your federal return.

Where do I report U.S. Treasury obligations from Form 1099-DIV?
Report them in the Income section on the Interest topic. Enter them as U.S. Savings Bond and Treasury obligation income.

These two answers somewhat conflict with each other, so I just started a new dummy return as a California resident to look around. If you don’t find a box to enter the interest during the 1099-DIV entry process in your Federal return interview (I did not see this), you should be able to enter the information in the State return portion of the interview.

Under the “Income” section of the State Return, there will a screen called “Your Income Adjustments and Deductions”. Here there should be a place to report US Treasury dividends.

Click on “Add” and you will be asked to enter the “US Treasury dividends excludable in [Your State]”. For example, if you received $100,000 in total dividends from the Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund (VUSXX) in 2023, you will find it does meet the threshold requirements for California, Connecticut, and New York and it had a US government obligation percentage of 80.06% in 2023. In this example, $80,060 of the $100,000 in dividends would be excludable.

Here are some links to find the percentage of ordinary dividends that come from obligations of the U.S. government. You should be able to find this data for any mutual fund or ETF by searching for something like “[fund company] us government obligations 2023”]. If you do not see the fund listed within the fund company, it may be assumed to be 0%.

[Image credit – Tax Foundation]

Filed Under: Investing, Taxes //
Last updated: February 8, 2024
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

More Data in Support of Buy and Hold Investing

Posted on January 31, 2024 // 6 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

The film Tune Out the Noise ended up as a story of how a small group of “data freaks” gathered and analyzed a huge amount of historical data early on in the digital revolution, and made a series of big realizations. The one that most people know is that an S&P 500 index fund does a good job harvesting the “market premium” (the higher return of stocks over bonds) at a very low cost. Vanguard became a juggernaut by offering rock-bottom cheap access to this market premium.

But DFA went further and focused on other discoveries in the data like the “size premium” (smaller-cap stocks tended to outperform larger-cap stocks) and the “value premium” (low price/book ratio stocks tended to outperform higher price/book ratio stocks). This is what DFA does, it digs deeper into the data and charges more for their interpretation of the results. I personally view these as less reliable than the market premium, and at a slightly higher cost. Will they be worth it? I don’t know, and that is why I only place a smaller bet on them. But it is important to remember that the idea of stocks returning more than bonds is also a bet. There is no guarantee.

However, it’s also very useful to know what type of stuff doesn’t work. In fact, a recent NY Times article In the Stock Market, Don’t Buy and Sell. Just Hold (full gift article) highlights a study – done by the same DFA company of “data freaks” – that dug deep into potential market timing methods.

Most of us are better off living with the reality that the stock market moves down as well as up, and that we can’t beat it. A new study provides fresh evidence of why it makes sense to strive for an absolutely middling return. And the study implies that a simple, unspectacular strategy — buying and holding the entire market through low-cost index funds — is probably the best bet for most people.

Here is a DFA article We Found 30 Timing Strategies That ‘Worked’ — and 690 That Didn’t and the actual academic paper on SSRN, Another Look at Timing the Equity Premiums. From the abstract:

We examine strategies that time the market, size, value, and profitability premiums in the US, developed ex US, and emerging markets based on three common timing approaches: valuation ratio, mean reversion, and momentum. Out of the 720 timing strategies we simulated, the vast majority underperformed relative to staying invested in the long side of the premiums. While 30 strategies delivered promising outperformance at first glance, further analysis shows that their outperformance is very sensitive to specific time periods and parameters for strategy construction. Our results highlight the opportunity cost of mistiming the premiums and the importance of discipline for capturing the premiums.

Basically, they looked at 720 different ways that you could perform market timing. To start out, only about 30 out of the 720 actually created excess returns:

But out of those 30, if you tweaked just one of the variables, they mostly fell apart. For example, they found one that got you an extra 5.5% a year. Wow! But if you changed the rebalance period from annual to monthly, the excess return plummeted to only 1.5%. If you changed from international stocks to US stocks, you actually lost 3.8% a year.

In the end, the researchers couldn’t find a single way to time the market that was reliable.

Filed Under: Investing //
Last updated: February 1, 2024
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

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